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Winesett Awards for Library Research announced

The winners of the 2014 Winesett Awards for Library Research were announced and celebrated in McConnell Library on Friday, May 2.

Funded by the Hazel Grove Winesett Endowment and administered by the Radford University Foundation, the awards are made annually at the end of the spring semester to recognize the academic year’s most creative and original library research by undergraduate students.

"As we are every year, we were impressed by the quality of our students work," said Associate Professor Candice Benjes-Small, chair of the Winesett Awards for Library Research Committee, noting the wide range of research topics, including red-tailed squirrels, infantile pertussis and the propaganda techniques in George Orwell's classic work "1984."

The top prizes—four awards of $750 each—were granted to students whose papers or projects best illustrate the exemplary use of McConnell Library’s tools, resources and development of information-gathering tools.

Finalists and winners of the Winesett Award for Library Research Awards

Winners in the upper division (seniors and juniors) were:

Senior Shaun Howard for "'Local Defense of the Chesapeake Region during the War of 1812," nominated by Professor Mary Ferrari

Senior Katherine Okie for "Muses in Combat: Soviet Ballet During the Great Patriotic War," nominated by Professor Suzanne Ament

Megan Charles for "Divorce and Custody in Same-Sex marriage; the Future Model for Traditionally Married Divorces?" nominated by Professor Michele Ren

Sidney Green for "The Counteractive Truth of the Color Blue," nominated by Professor Lindsey Kamerer

Derek Lynn for "An Impetus for Change: From Accusatio to Inqusitio, nominated by Professor Mark Munzinger

Hillary Moore for "Effectiveness of Coral Farming methods on Acropora cervicornis (Staghorn coral) at Three Sites along the Florida Coast," nominated by Professor Stockton Maxwell

This year, the library received more than 40 completed applications for the Winesett awards.

The keynote speaker for the ceremony was Professor Scott McDarmont, who spoke of the importance for faculty and students to build a relationship with the library.

"I think our students don't often appreciate how big a role the library plays in their educations," McDarmont said. "Whenever a student finds his or her way to my office…the first thing I ask them is 'Have you gone to the library? Have you searched the databases?'"

The annual library research contest was named in honor of 1938 alumna Hazel Winesett, a lifelong educator from Pulaski who was remembered as a woman with a warm and modest heart who loved to travel. On her death in 2002, Winesett left the McConnell Library an $820,000 endowment, the largest such gift that the library had received.

Her gift allowed the library to implement many projects, including the Winesett awards. In addition to the annual library research award contest, the Winesett endowment has been used to help fund numerous initiatives, such as expanding resources, upgrading furnishings and equipment, and establishing the McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections' annual Winesett Book Collecting Contest.

Copies of this year's prize-winning papers will be permanently housed in the McConnell Library University Archives and can be digitally accessed online from the Winesett Awards for Library Research Collection.